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Society>Exciting
Middle East | Saudi Arabia | Culture

Saudi Arabia grants women right to obtain own passports, travel without male guardian

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Just over a year since women were granted the historical right to drive, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has now passed another monumental reform to enable females to finally obtain passports and travel alone. According to the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Information, the amendment – which was signed by the Saudi Cabinet on Thursday – overturns the longstanding regulation that women must gain approval from a male guardian to receive a passport or were granted a page in their guardian’s passport, rendering it illegal for them to travel abroad independently. Effective as of the end of August,
Middle East | Saudi Arabia | Culture

A year on the road: how life has changed for Saudi women since taking the wheel

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Ammal Farahat has been driving in Saudi Arabia for a year. To celebrate, she’s finally registering her car under her own name. She bought her VW Passat five years ago, but had relinquished control of it to her drivers – until now. A year on from the historic decision to lift the ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia, thousands of women across the kingdom have spent 12 months leading a freer existence. The move came as part of a series of reforms implemented by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman since he assumed the role of heir apparent last year. It comes as part of a larger pla
South Asia | India | Activism

Thousands of Women in India Create World’s Largest Crochet Blanket

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The all-woman team made a blanket the size of a soccer-pitch It took over two thousand women, six months and lots of yarn to break the Guinness World Record for largest crochet blanket on Sunday in the city of Chennai, India. The efforts of the all-female group of crocheting enthusiasts— known as Mother’s India’s Crochet Queens— payed off on Jan. 31, when they broke South Africa’s record. Their finished product was a 120 thousand square-foot blanket, around the size of a soccer pitch. It is reported that the blanket was disassembled and sections donated to needy Indian f
North America | United States | Economy

California Just Became the Best State for Working Women

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California took a major step Tuesday toward closing the lingering wage gap between men and women, as Gov. Jerry Brown signed one of the toughest pay equity laws in the nation. Women in California who work full time are paid substantially less — a median 84 cents for every dollar — than men, according to a U.S Census Bureau report this year. “The inequities that have plagued our state and have burdened women forever are slowly being resolved with this kind of bill,” Brown said at a ceremony at Rosie the Riveter National Historical Park in the Bay Area city of Richmond.
Africa | Somalia | Leadership

12 Trailblazing Somali Women

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Horn is a new publication featuring trailblazing women from the Horn of Africa. Issue 1 of the magazine, which launched last month, shines a special spotlight on Somali women. According to Horn‘s editor and founder, Sumaya, the project arose from a question of where the “carefree Somali girls” were being portrayed. “They most often self-identify as Muslim and African, yet are rarely ever represented in both arenas,” says Sumaya. “Within their communities and households, they basically run things, but are usually behind the scenes. They are in the unique position of being black
North America | United States | Arts

Misty Copeland named first black female principal dancer by Ballet Theater

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Misty Copeland was fast becoming the most famous ballerina in the United States — making the cover of Time magazine, being profiled by “60 Minutes,” growing into a social media sensation and dancing ballet’s biggest roles on some of its grandest stages. But another role eluded her: She was still not a principal dancer. Until Tuesday, when Ms. Copeland became the first African-American woman to be named a principal in the 75-year history of American Ballet Theater.
Middle East | Palestine | Culture

Speed Sisters: meet the Middle East’s female car-racing team

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The acrylic nails aren’t the first thing you notice, but they’re definitely in the mix, alongside hot dust, hot air, thick engine oil, makeshift tracks, customised street cars, puffy one-piece racing suits. Oh yes, and women: Palestinian women, some of whom wear amazing nail art. Meet the world’s first all-female racing-car driving team from occupied Palestine. There’s Maysoon Jayyusi, the team’s 38-year-old manager, from Jerusalem, who says her love for racing-car driving came from the frustration of being stuck in the West Bank’s constant traffic jams and checkpoints; Mona Ali
Europe | Great Britain | Activism

Women’s Institute at 100: as pleasingly bolshie as ever

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There may well be a man or two concealed somewhere in the vast expanse of the Royal Albert Hall, but if there are indeed any members of the weaker sex present, they had better not hear the urgent tinkle of nature’s call. Five-thousand members of the Women’s Institute have gathered to mark 100 years of their foundation, and as the defiant “Ladies’ Toilet” signs stuck on the doors of the gents’ affirm, for one day at least, this is decidedly a women’s world. A century after the first group of determined women gathered in a shed in the village of Llanfairpwllgwyngyll on Anglesey,
International | Science

This is what a female engineer looks like

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Last summer, we were lamenting the lack of women engineers in the media. There are tons of articles and data about how women are a minority in the software industry, which is a sad reality. Meanwhile, the few articles that specifically showcase women in tech create an unattainable archetype of a woman that somehow manages to run marathons, raise a family, always looks impeccable, and marginalizes the amazing technology that she built. As software engineers, we get asked a lot about what it’s like to be a woman in tech. We decided to take control and do something about it, and that’s how
North America | United States | Business

Built by women, flown by women: Boeing, United Airlines highlight female leaders at 737 handoff

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Women are increasingly at the controls at every level of the aerospace industry. That inspired United Airlines (NYSE: UAL) and Boeing (NYSE: BA) to collaborate on a unique aircraft delivery Wednesday morning. Nicole Piasecki, Boeing Commercial Airplanes vice president and general manager of propulsion, ceremonially handed the keys to the new 737-900ER to United executives Cheryl Kappes and Nancy Ricker, at a ceremony at Boeing Field in Seattle. Shortly after the ceremony, the jet took off for Chicago, piloted by an all-female flight crew, and with every seat occupied by women from every
Middle East | Dubai | Activism

On Dubai’s roads, women hop on Harleys and shatter stereotypes

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"When I ride, I feel like I own the world." That's how Dana Adam describes her experience riding a motorcycle — a Harley-Davidson, no less — across the expansive highways of Dubai. Dana Adam isn't her real name; she's using a pseudonym because she's from a powerful, conservative family in Yemen, where riding a motorcycle was just a dream. "It's not acceptable in Yemen," she says. "No lady rides on a bike. My family never let me do it." But in Dubai, Dana is following her dream — and she's not the only one. There's a whole group of female riders in Dubai, and reporter
North America | United States | Medicine

This ‘Inspiring’ 90-Year-Old Woman Has Served As A Nurse For Nearly 70 Years

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The year was 1946. Penicillin had only recently become widely available, flu vaccines were a new phenomenon and it would be several years before Watson and Crick would describe the structure of DNA. That year, Florence “Seesee” Rigney started working as a student nurse at the Tacoma General School of Nursing, then part of Tacoma General Hospital in Washington. The job was her lifelong dream. "I love nursing," Rigney said in 2013. "Since I was a little girl, it was something that I always wanted to do." And, boy, has she done it. Rigney is now 90 years old and still a working
Middle East | Saudi Arabia | Business

Saudi Women Can’t Drive To Work; So They’re Flocking To The Internet

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In a country where women are prohibited from driving themselves to work, technology is opening new avenues to the job market in Saudi Arabia. Thousands of women use Instagram, the popular photo-sharing site, to launch businesses that sell goods and services, from cupcakes to sushi, in the desert kingdom. At a recent convention of Instagram businesses, hundreds of women set up booths at a private girls school in the capital Riyadh to share success stories. Startups on social media became a draw for women because it's easier than tangling with government bureaucracy to get a business li
South Asia | Afghanistan | Culture

Afghan female ‘Top Gun’ breaks gender barrier

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With a hint of swagger, Afghanistan's first female pilot since the fall of the Taliban is defying death threats and archaic gender norms to infiltrate what is almost entirely a male preserve. Dressed in khaki overalls, aviator shades and a black headscarf, 23-year-old Niloofar Rahmani cuts a striking presence as she struts across the tarmac at the Kabul Air Force base. "Ever since I was a child, when I saw a bird in the sky, I wanted to fly a plane," she told AFP at the base, hemmed in by rolling dun-coloured hills. "Many girls in Afghanistan have dreams... but a number of problems, t

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